


if i kiss you, will you kiss me back

by ofsinnersandsaints



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, blame the Sweet Red Blend, college jester, i drank some wine and this happened, look - Freeform, ta fjord
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 17:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20492618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofsinnersandsaints/pseuds/ofsinnersandsaints
Summary: Jester's at a bar with Beau when she calls over her friend Fjord, who just so happens to be Jester's TA and the guy she's been crushing on for months





	if i kiss you, will you kiss me back

**Author's Note:**

> no editing was done in the process of making this fic

Jester was absolutely not going to hit on the teacher’s assistant from her writing class.

Sure, he was extraordinarily hot, and his voice was even better, but she wasn’t going to hit on him because he was the TA and there were probably rules for those sorts of things.

No fraternization and the like.

Except, she was at a bar, and he was at the same bar, and he was wearing an open flannel shirt over a black t-shirt and she was weak.

Maybe she could find a way to bump into him, she thought. Just go up to the bar and pretend not to see him, get close enough to touch and then act surprised when she realized it was him.

Then they could talk and she could finally figure out if he was friendly and funny outside of class as he was in it.

Then he’d realize she was love of his life, take her to his car, and they’d have sex in the back seat.

“I’m here,” Beau announced as she came up to the table on a whirlwind. “I’m late, but I’m here.”

“That means you get the first round,” Jester reminded her.

Between Beau going through the police academy and Jester’s class schedules, they were constantly trying to meet up and when one of them was late, they bought.

“Fair’s fair,” Beau grumbled, picking up the drink menu from the table. “What do you want? Because I don’t think they have anything with as much sugar as your body requires.”

“As long as it’s not shots, I don’t care,” Jester answered, sneaking a glance back at Fjord who was talking to a guy Jester vaguely recognized from campus.

“Who are you staring at?” Beau asked, and Jester watched as her body straightened. “Oh, hey. It’s my friend,” she cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled.

“What are you doing,” Jester hissed, grabbing Beau’s arm as Fjord waved at them and made his way over.

“That’s my buddy, Fjord. He- why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because that’s the guy.”

“What guy?”

“The guy,” Jester repeated, with emphasis and Beau’s jaw dropped as her eyes went wide.

“Oh, shit. He’s the guy? Fjord? Did you say his name and I just missed it?”

“No,” she bit out and tried to keep a cool smile on her face as Fjord came up to the table looking confident and casual with his easy grin.

Jester wanted to bite him.

“Hey Beau,” Fjord greeted, turning that smile on Jester and she could swear she felt her knees go weak. “Hey, Jester.”

Did his voice go a little softer with her name or was that just her imagination. “Hey, Fjord. I didn’t know you knew Beau.”

“I didn’t know, either. But I should have figured, she knows everyone.”

“And you’ll all be my CIs when I become a cop,” she informed them. “I’m getting drinks, you want in Fjord?”

“I’ll take a beer,” Fjord answered and Beau went off to the bar to get their drinks.

Jester resisted the urge to squirm as Fjord shifted close so he didn’t have shout over the noise of the music playing at the bar. “How do you know Beau?”

“I was getting mugged by somebody downtown last year and she kicked their ass. You?”

“Pretty much the same way.”

Jester’s eyes widened in a mock surprise, “Did someone try to steal your purple too?”

Fjord barked out a laugh, “No. Someone broke into my car and I was cursing about it when she came by and offered to help me out. She’s good to have in a crisis.”

“She is,” Jester agreed.

“But apparently she’s terrible at getting drinks,” Fjord pointed out. “The bar isn’t that crowded.”

“Oh, she’s staying away because I told her I had a crush on you.”

The world stopped.

Jester could feel the entirety the universe turn its head and look at her.

Her face was probably redder than an apple.

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath as she felt his eyes on her. But she didn’t dare look at him. “Shit, fucking, fuck. Any chance you can forget I just said that?”

“No, there really isn’t.” He didn’t sound angry, or weird and she risked a glance up to see his eyes on hers, a soft smile on his face as he watched her. “A crush, huh?”

“Please,” she scoffed, trying to be more confident and cool than she was. “As if half the class isn’t doodling your name in hearts.”

“Is that what you’re doing when you’re supposed to be taking notes?”

“I’m drawing dicks,” she told him honestly and he laughed again and she liked the sound more than was good for her. “Also, Beau’s not coming back with drinks.”

“Huh?” Jester pointed to the bar where Beau was flirting with a black woman, her white down to her hips. “She’s picking someone up?”

“Or someone’s picking her up,” Jester shrugged. “This happens a lot. Beau gets all the girls.”

“Jealous?” Fjord asked carefully.

“Beau deserves all the girls,” Jester answered honestly. “But no one ever hits on me.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious.”

He stared at her like she was trying to pull one over on him. “You’re kidding.”

Jester shook her head. “I’m not.”

“Is everyone in the world dumb as shit?”

It was her turn to laugh. “I was pretty sheltered as a kid, which I think makes me different than most people. I’m odd.”

“You’re funny,” he corrected, shifting a little closer. “And you’ve got a smile that knocks me off my feet.”

“What?”

He looked a little embarrassed as he shrugged. “Yours wasn’t the only crush Beau knew about.”

“Huh?”

Jester watched as he looked at the bar, and she followed his gaze where Beau was completely caught up by the pretty woman. Fjord reached down and took her by the hand and led her through the college bar where people were playing pool, darts, and making out in dark corners.

“Are you kidnapping me?” she asked.

“And if I was?” he asked, the question thrown of his shoulder as he led her out the back where the patio was all but empty.

“It’s polite to ask permission first,” she said, and then couldn’t help herself by adding, “Or a safe word.”

He stumbled and she bit back a laugh. “You have a safe word?”

Jester stepped under the warm lights of patio sconces. It wasn’t fair that the shadows and light made him even more handsome. “Everyone should have a safe word,” she explained seriously. “Even for vanilla sex.”

Fjord stared at her for a solid three seconds. “You constantly surprise me.”

“Good.”

He dropped her hand and took a step back and she wished it had been the other way around. “I do like you Jester. A lot. I read the stuff you write, and it’s so entertaining and fun.”

“My peer reviews say I don’t take the assignments seriously enough.”

“Your peers are assholes,” he told her, leaning against the table behind him so they were closer to being at eye level. “And while they’re writing overly pompous shit that doesn’t actually mean anything, what you put to paper is from the heart, it’s got emotion, and that trumps everything else.”

“It does?” she asked and if he wasn’t going to make out with her than she was going to be incredibly disappointed and the next story she was going to write would involve him getting his dick eaten by a dragon. “Are you going to kiss me? Is that why you brought me out here?”

“I brought you out here because it was loud in there, and I wanted to talk to you like a normal person.”

“Oh.”

Fjord stood up and Jester watched with baited breath as he took a step towards her. “But I want to kiss you.”

“Wanting is different than doing,” she informed him.

“I’m aware. But I can’t.”

“Cause you’re my TA.”

“It wouldn’t be appropriate.”

“I’m okay with that.”

He chuckled and brushed his thumb against her cheek like he couldn’t help himself. “Yeah, but I’m not. I got my job by the skin of my teeth, and I need it, and as much as I want to know what you taste like, I can’t take the risk.”

Jester’s heart cracked a little but she nodded, “I get that.”

“But the term is only three more weeks.”

Her eyes darted up to his, and her breath caught a little somewhere between her chest and her throat. “Nineteen days. Not that I’m counting.”

“So, if maybe you were free in twenty days?”

Jester pulled out her phone from her pocket and pulled up the calendar, quickly scrolling through the days. “It’s a Wednesday.”

“I know this theater downtown that plays old black and white movies on Wednesdays, if you wanted to go?”

“I would really like that, Fjord.”

“Okay,” he agreed and then swore sharply under his breath. “This is going to the longest nineteen days of my fucking life.”

Jester laughed and rolled onto the balls her feet so she could kiss him on the cheek, letting the touch linger for a moment longer than was appropriate. “It’s a date.”

Nineteen days later

Fjord was waiting outside the theater a few minutes before the movie was about to start, Jester had texted him saying she was running a little late but would be there soon.

It was stupid to be nervous, they’d talked every day since that night at the bar – Beau had been insufferable because of it, but he put up with her patting herself on the back because even if they hadn’t actually gone a date yet, Jester was still the best thing to ever happen to him.

She was fucking happy, and it was such a wild thing for him to realize that he didn’t know anyone else who could say that.

Throughout the past few weeks they’d constantly texted and she’d sent him pictures of her feet in the sand, of memes, and quotes, and puns. He told her about shit in his childhood and she freely offered to beat up his childhood nemesis.

It was dumb to think about love before even kissing her, but he couldn’t imagine feeling this way about anyone else.

And when she stepped out of her Uber wearing a sundress and leather jacket, he knew there was no turning back.

“You look amazing,” he told her and wished he could think of a better word than that.

“Thanks,” she said as she got closer and before he realized what she was doing she reached out to grab his coat, pulled him down to her level and kissed him.

It was like being struck by lightning and he held onto her, kissing her back and wrapping his arms around her waist.

It was thirty seconds before either them pulled away to catch their breaths.

“Sorry,” she apologized, and neither looked nor sounded like she meant it. “But that was the longest nineteen days of my life, and I really didn’t want to wait until the date was over.”

“No,” he stuttered, and wished he could get his shit together for once. “That was-Yeah. I’m with you there.”

“Are you ready for the movie?” she asked and he couldn’t believe she was still able to think.

“Give me a minute,” he answered and kissed her because he could and her lips were close it seemed a shame to waste the convenience.

He could feel the curve of that smile as he kissed her, her fingers going into his hair as his arms wrapped around her waist. “I could do this all night,” he told her honestly.

“We can do it all you want,” she promised with a grin, stepping out of his embrace. “After the movie. I should warn you, I talk a lot during movies.”

“Color me shocked,” Fjord remarked as he grabbed her hand. She squeezed it once as they continued walking towards the entrance.

“But I can be silenced for gummy worms.”

“Nah,” Fjord shook his head as he opened the door for her. “I want to hear what you have to say.”

“You know what? I think I might keep you around.”

“Thank God,” he said, and it may have sounded like a joke, but he meant every word.


End file.
